Behind the Scenes

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Engaging the Community

TimeLine’s Living History Teaching Artists have an icebreaker that they love to play with new groups of people. They call the game, “Where my people from” and provide a series of prompts that a single person can say to the group:  Where my people from, we… I love my people who… Where I’m from, we… On my block, we…  Then they usually follow up with an example like, “Where my people from, Sunday night is ...
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A Greener TimeLine

TimeLine, a group of storytellers at heart, has been examining more closely the stories we tell—to ourselves and others. This means that we’re looking at the historical and present-day impacts of our choices and our resources. The push to uncover and to tell a different ...
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Designing TimeLine

Throughout this pandemic pause, TimeLine’s staff has been hard at work on the design phase for our future new home at 5033–5035 North Broadway Avenue in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. And for many of us, the fact that this phase aligned with the pause has been ...
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Surveying the experts: YOU

Earlier this year, when hopes about rapidly containing the pandemic were high, we updated our subscribers and audience members to let everyone know about our prospective plans. We didn’t have shows or dates to announce, but rather a promise and a commitment to our values:  ...
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Everyone’s history

If you explored our newest Strategic Plan in September’s Behind the ‘Line post, you saw that one of our Primary Excellence Goals (PEG) is “Everyone’s History.” While this PEG has been a formal part of our strategic plans since 2017, diversity, inclusion, and community-focused programming ...
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Dear TimeLine, What Does Voting Mean To You?

In honor of this year’s presidential election, we reached out to TimeLine company, associate artists, board, and staff to ask about their views on voting. We asked them three questions: What was your first memory involving voting? What can you remember about the first time you voted? What does voting mean to you?  Across generations and over many elections, experiences differed but the bottom line remained the same: we believe that voting is a piece ...
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Setting the stage

As we head into fall, go Behind the ‘Line with this reflection on recent happenings at TimeLine, including our online programs celebrating Relentless and Campaigns, Inc.; a multi-week exploration of The New York Times’ “1619 Project” through our weekly staff LunchGroup; and a new landlord ...
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Looking forward together

In our last post on August 7, we shared TimeLine’s commitment to being open, honest, and forthcoming throughout this crisis and beyond. And we revealed our primary goals for the year. Today, we’re sharing more about the how, the why, and the what of our ...
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And then the pandemic happened

Change happens. Change is definitely going to happen, no matter what we plan for or expect or hope for or set in place. We will adapt to that change, or we will become irrelevant.  – adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy Members of TimeLine’s staff read ...
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Inside A SHAYNA MAIDEL with playwright Barbara Lebow

                 Playwright Barbara Lebow During the rehearsal process for A Shayna Maidel, dramaturg Deborah Blumenthal spoke with playwright Barbara Lebow about her process creating the play and its resonance in today’s world. Learn more about the powerful play in her ...
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